


la petite mort

by orphan_account



Category: Re-Animator (1985)
Genre: Masturbation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-04 17:29:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10995585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: herbert west refuses to call orgasms anything but “la petite mort”





	la petite mort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doctor-phlox](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=doctor-phlox).



Herbert West did not often find sex an attractive idea. It wasn't a bad idea; it was simply an idea to which he had any particular attachment.

He could go weeks, months even, without thinking about sex except to shake his head in disgust at Dan's shenanigans. But every once in a while, if the stars were in alignment and he had nothing pressing going on in the lab, he felt the faintest stirrings of his loins.

When Dan left for some silliness he took himself off to a darkened closet with a pile of only slightly blood-stained clothes. He nested the clothes around and reclined and with a largely scientific mindset worked himself up to la petite mort.

After he lay in his nest feeling slightly cold and vaguely sad. Why was it, he wondered, that sex was so near to death, and still failed to hold his attention in the way death did? It was a quick outpouring of the life force, not unlike a swift death, but with little finality. So why did he feel so ambivalently about it?

This was not, he realized, particularly usual. Dan certainly made no attempt to hide his love for Sex with a capital S. But then again, Dan also made no attempt to hide his love for women. And he did apparently love them. Couldn't live without them. Herbert had no such needs. Which stood to say, he had nothing against women. They were every bit as amusing to take apart and rebuild as men were. But aesthetically, to Herbert at least, they always seemed to score below men.

This too was a source of frustration. Marcel Proust had written about what he called inverses, men who were attracted to men and such. But the fact remained that he simply didn't feel as strongly about sex with a man as Dan seemed to feel about sex with a woman. Half the time when he was seeking la petite mort he didn't think of anything at all.

 But then again, he thought, cleaning himself up with the sleeve of a mostly-clean shirt, every once in a while when he was here in this place he found himself thinking of someone, imagining, wondering what would happen if Dan should open the door while he was inside. Perhaps it was because this only took place in his imagination, but he never found himself particularly embarrassed or ashamed. Dan never seemed upset either. He would very often join Herbert, in his cozy little nook and while nothing particularly... _interconnected_ happened in these daydreams it was very nice and comforting.

However attractive la petite mort was as an experience, Herbert decided as he settled down into his closet-nest, sex itself was incredibly complicated. Perhaps one day, when all the other mysteries of life and death were solved, he'd investigate more thoroughly. Until that day, (he thought as his eyelids drooped and he snuggled down into the laundry) he was actually quite content.


End file.
